Monday, August 30, 2010

Tracing ones lineage often uncovers forgotten facts and interrelated events in the lives of individuals and their families throughout the ages.

While transcribing thousands of death certificates for my ancestors and their extended family, the signature of one doctor, John Franklin Noyes, rose to a level prominence in my mind.

As one a couple of group of doctors in early small town Utah, Dr. John Franklin Noyes was usually present at significant events in the lives of my family. He certified the deaths of scores of the family. He was present at the time of many of their deaths and at many births in the family.

Dr. John Franklin Noyes

His surname was readily identifiable due to his clearly written signature. The name of his son, Kenneth Noyes, was prominent in my memory too because he was the doctor that delivered me and later administered shots to my tiny quivering fanny. Well, it wasn’t always tiny, but whenever I visited his office and he had me stand on a stool, drop may pants and would say, “I hope the bees don’t sting anyone here today”, it did quiver.

Dr. Kenneth Eugene Noyes

Dr. Kenneth Eugene Noyes, served as the family doctor during my life. He sewed my fathers thumb back together after he ran it through a table saw. He sewed my scalp back together after it caught a thrown hammer. He patched, prodded and prescribed our bodies for many years. The surname ‘Noyes’ was burned into my basal memory.

John Franklin & Siddie Chipman Noyes Tombstone – Am. Fork, UT

When taking volunteer photos for Find-a-grave, I encountered the tombstones of both of these doctors and their families. When I later posted the days photos to the FAG site, I was surprised to find that no one had posted photos to their memorials yet.

These men were ‘institutions’ in town for three or four generations of families.

John Franklin Noyes marker

Later, while scanning photos for family histories, I came across the photos of each of these doctors that my mother had clipped from newspapers. Looking at them brought back memories from my youth and spurred interest in the Noyes ancestry.

Kenneth and Leona Field Noyes tombstone -American Fork, Utah

Surprisingly, I found that some of their ancestors lived in the same small area in Leeds, Ontario, Canada at the same time as my ancestors. Both families joined the early LDS Church and moved to Nauvoo, Illinois just in time to be persecuted by mobs and driven out of their homes in the dead of winter. Their ancestors survived that experience. Several of mine did not.

The unusual death certificate. Dr. Noyes certifying the death of his father, Dr. Noyes.

Both families eventually settled in the same small town in Utah. Children from the families intermarried, but over the years and generations that history was forgotten.

These families had survived the same causality events, but their occupational paths diverted. One became farmers the other doctors.

How many people do we encounter in our lives that have ties to us? When filling in the ‘color’ of the stories in our family history, there are probably more than any of us realize.